Trusting Love
by endless-twisted-lullabies
Summary: Now the thing about being an assassin for SHIELD is that the bond between you and your team often means the difference between life and death. As in trusting your partner keeps you alive. So, naturally, a year and a half after she first joined the organization, Clint was more than just the-guy-who-saved-her to Natasha and Natasha was more than the-girl-he-saved to Clint. Blackhawk


Annnnd another prompt fill (I got like 19 of these all at once, so... I'm gonna be posting a _lot _of these.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, Nick Fury, or SHIELD. So so so much slash if I did, though. Seriously. Stony and Clint/Coulson and Science Buddies and Thormerica and just everything, but mostly Stony. I love Stony 3

Also, sorry this is kind of shitty. It was just really hard for me to write and idk why.

* * *

Three weeks after he returned to SHIELD with Black Widow, Natasha Romanov, instead of coming back alone as was planned, Clint was in the shoot range training with a new bow he had received a couple days before as an upgrade. New equipment always required some practice before you could confidently fight with it. Or that's how Hawkeye felt, anyway. He couldn't afford to miss, his insane, deadly aim was all he had, so therefore, he couldn't afford to go into battle or on a mission with weapons he was unfamiliar with.

So that's where he was, shooting target after target, when Natasha found him. It threw him off to see her at first because, well… She hadn't left her assigned room at all except to train or eat in the whole three weeks she'd been there and they had honestly only spoken a handful of times. He had to initiate the brief conversations, too. It was obvious that she trusted literally no one there, including maybe even herself, so she had almost completely withdrawn. Not that he had expected any other kind of reaction. He didn't know many details on her past, but he had a feeling it wasn't the best. The trust issues were probably from years of having to survive on her own, from not being able to depend on anyone but herself. That's what he thought, anyway. Or maybe he was just jumping to conclusions, because if _he _was taken back to join some secret organization that had previously been looking to kill him, he would've been wary of everyone, too.

None of that really nattered, though, because Natasha was standing there, at a safe distance, watching him expectantly. Shit, she had said something, hadn't she?

"Sorry, what did you say?" The hand that held his bow hung limply at his side and, at some point, he had apparently turned to face her.

Natasha pursed her lips, eyes flashing dangerously, "You were lucky enough to get it even once, Barton. Don't you make me say it again."

"No, I actually didn't hear what you said." He frowned, wondering where all the hostility in her voice was coming from. Up until then, she had just been really distant, not aggressive or violent, so what was with the sudden attitude change?

"Oh." Her gaze softened but her defensive stance, arms crossed and legs spread slightly, didn't, "Right. Okay. Sorry, I'm just… Not used to this."

Though he wanted to know, he didn't ask what 'this' was. Someone being nice to her, maybe? Being a part of a group instead of on her own? Answering to someone like Fury? Socializing with people? "It's alright." He didn't press about what exactly she had said originally, figuring that he had to be careful with what he did around her. This was one of the first times she'd sought anyone out, after all, so he didn't want to fuck it up and scare her away again.

"I said thank you." She offered after a pause, eyes trained on the ground.

"For what?"

Sighing softly, her eyes flicked up to meet his, "For saving me. You were supposed to kill me, weren't you?" A nod, "Right, so you were sent to kill me. But you didn't. I'm not sure why and I'm not sure I even want to know, so just… Thank you."

Clint could feel the corners of his lips turn up in a faint smile. Natasha could be cold and emotionless at times, but so could he. And maybe what they both needed was someone they could rely on, if not trust, "You're welcome, I guess."

"Well, I appreciate it. I'm not too into the idea of dying." She smiled weakly back and he counted that as an accomplishment.

"Neither am I." He made an amused half-laugh, half-snort and ran a hand through his hair. Like Natasha, he wasn't a big fan of showing his emotions, but he would occasionally.

Another silence followed, broken only when Clint shrugged and glanced back at the targets, narrowing his eyes almost threateningly at one that he hadn't gotten around to shooting yet, "If that's all you needed to talk about, I should probably get back to training."

Natasha simply nodded, keeping her strong gaze on him for a couple seconds longer before silently disappearing again.

Definitely a trained assassin.

—-

Very early on, Fury decided to make the two of them partners because they both needed one and, well, Natasha pretty much hated everyone but Clint. Well, she didn't exactly _like _him at that point, but she definitely didn't hate him, so who else would Fury going to pair up Natasha with?

Now the thing about being an assassin for SHIELD is that the bond between you and your team often means the difference between life and death. As in trusting your partner keeps you alive. So, naturally, a year and a half after she first joined the organization, Clint was more than just the-guy-who-saved-her to Natasha and Natasha was more than the-girl-he-saved to Clint. They were friends. Best friends, even. They trusted each other. Depended on each other. Maybe even had feelings for each other. Not that either of them would ever admit it, though.

Especially Natasha. She trusted Clint, she really did, but there was still a part of her that reminded her of one important thing. Everyone she had ever loved left her. Let someone in, that part of her reasoned, and get hurt. Again. And she was just _so _tired of setting herself up to fail. She was so tired of having a broken heart, of getting stabbed in the back, of being left behind, that she believed it. Which really sucked, because honestly, Clint would never do that to her. And maybe, somewhere deep inside, she knew that, but the voice telling her to '_keep your walls up, for the love of God' _was usually too loud.

_Usually._

—-

Three years now. Three whole years of working for SHIELD. Of working with Clint. Of being in love.

Yes, Natasha Romanov was in love. With Clint Barton, too, a man who loved her back. She knew that, _had_known that for a long time, so why weren't they together? What was she so damn _afraid _of? Clint was a good man, a good person, and she knew for a fact that he wouldn't ever hurt her on purpose. She had been so sure that was the case with other people before him, but with Clint… She _knew_ he wouldn't hurt her. Not just thought, but actually knew.

So fuck that little voice in her head, she wasn't gonna let it stand in her way any longer.

—-

"Hey, Tash," Clint greeted the woman with a warm smile in one of the hellicarrier's many hallways, noticing the fiery determination in her eyes as she grew closer, "Is something wro-"

And then they were finally, finally kissing.

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Hope you liked. R&R?


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